EGYPT: Lufthansa And British Airways Suspend Flights To Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh And Cairo

Lufthansa has followed the UK British Airways in temporarily flight suspension to the Egyptian capital as a precaution for security reasons, according to the company's statement, cited by local media.

Lufthansa has said in a statement that as safety is the number one priority of Lufthansa, the airline has temporarily suspended its flights to Cairo today as a precaution, while further assessment is being made.

Lufthansa canceled flights from Frankfurt and Munich to Cairo but is expected to resume service to the Egyptian capital on Sunday. The similar statement was issued earlier by British Airways.

"We constantly review our security arrangements at all our airports around the world and have suspended flights to Cairo for seven days as a precaution to allow for further assessment. The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our priority, and we would never operate an aircraft unless it was safe to do so", the statement said.

A spokesperson for the UK-based company has said that the flights were suspended "for seven days as a precaution to allow for further assessment".

Earlier, the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has advised passengers against air travel to and from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh but has not issued a similar warning on Cairo.

"There’s a heightened risk of terrorism against aviation. Additional security measures are in place for flights departing from Egypt to the UK. You should co-operate fully with security officials at airports", the FCO said.

British staff had been checking security at Cairo airport on Wednesday and Thursday. They reportedly gave no further details.

Russia suspended civilian air traffic to Egypt in November 2015 after a bomb brought down a Russian plane, which took off from Sharm el-Sheikh en route to St. Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.

Before regular flights between Moscow and Cairo were resumed in April 2018, Egypt had to seriously enhance security at airports. Charter flights between Russia and Egyptian resorts are yet reportedly to be resumed.

The suspension reportedly resulted in massive losses in Egypt's tourism industry, since this was one of the most popular destinations for Russian tourists. It is estimated that Egyptian authorities have spent millions of dollars to ensure the airports’ security.

British Airways said Saturday it had suspended flights to Cairo for seven days as a precautionary measure following a security review.

The British flag carrier said it would not operate its aircraft unless it felt it was safe to do so.

The British Foreign Office updated its travel advice on Saturday with the British Airways suspension. The Lufthansa website also included a link to the British warning page.

In its travel advice for British nationals heading to Egypt, the Foreign Office in London warns: “There’s a heightened risk of terrorism against aviation.”

“Additional security measures are in place for flights departing from Egypt to the UK. You should co-operate fully with security officials at airports.”

Britain advises against all but essential travel by air to or from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai peninsula.

“Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Egypt. Although most attacks occur in North Sinai, there is a risk of terrorist attacks across the country,” Britons are warned.

Britain canceled flights to Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh in 2015 after jihadists bombed a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from the Red Sea resort, killing more than 220 people on board.

An estimated 415,000 British nationals visited Egypt in 2018.


Tourism Observer

VENEZUELA: Maduro Kicks Out Copa Airlines From Venezuela

The Venezuelan government has unilaterally suspended all Copa Airlines operations to and from the country for at least 90 days, starting today, to protect the Venezuelan financial system from organized crime and terrorism, an official communicate says.

The release notes that the sanction could be extended.

The unilateral measures come as a retaliation taken by the government of Nicolas Maduro over a series of sanctions the Government of Panama imposed last week on several Venezuelan politicians.

The Panamanian Government stated that Maduro, along with 55 individuals and 16 Venezuelan companies, are considered a high risk for laundering money, terrorism financing, and trafficking weapons of mass destruction.

In return, the Venezuelan regime issued these sanctions against Copa Airlines claiming that several top-ranking authorities from Panama, including its President, Juan Carlos Varela, had been involved in money laundering.

They present an imminent risk to the Venezuelan financial system, the stability of commerce in the country, and the sovereignty and economic independence of the Venezuelan people, Maduro said.

The retaliation from the Venezuelan government has taken Copa Airlines by surprise.

These penalties were released by 4:00 p.m. local time on Thursday, April 5, and the Venezuelan National Civil Aviation Institute (INAC) released it at 9:00 p.m. via a Twitter post.

INAC claims the sanctions imposed on Copa were to prevent organized crime and terrorism finance

As a consequence, commercial ties with various companies and Panamanian officials were halted by the Venezuelan executive.

Following Venezuela’s measures, Panama has decided to recall its ambassador and asked the Venezuelan ambassador in Panama City to leave the country.

Copa Airlines said in a release that all affected passengers may ask for a refund of any outstanding tickets without penalties.

As of today, Copa Airlines was the last Latin American carrier operating in Venezuela with daily services to/from its hub in Panama City.

Just recently, the airline celebrated its 70th anniversary and held an event at the Venezuelan Capital reaffirming their intentions to continue serving the country despite the massive exodus of Venezuelans and the cancellation of other airlines serving Caracas.

Copa has operated daily flights to Caracas for the last 20 years.

Venezuela has suffered a massive exodus of airlines, with ten global carriers axing their daily services to the country in the last six years.

International organizations have also fled away because of the prohibitive, unsafe, and tense political climate in the country.

Since 1997, Copa Airlines has flown millions of Venezuelan passengers, connecting them from Caracas (CCS), Maracaibo (MAR), and Valencia (VLN) across its 75 destinations in 31 countries in the American continent.

With this suspension, the connectivity to Latin American cities from Venezuela will see a drop of over 85% in seat availability.

Currently, Wingo remains as the only Latin American carrier flying to Venezuela, five times per week, from its hub in Bogota. Wingo is a subsidiary of Copa Airlines and, so far, hasn’t been added to the sanction.

Copa Airlines (CM) and Lufthansa (LH), as members of the Star Alliance, reached an agreement that increases their commercial relations.

Copa will now be able to commercialize the Panama (PTY) – Frankfurt (FRA) – Panama route, operated by the German carrier.

Austrian Airlines will also be incorporated to the group of airlines with commercial relations with the Panamanian carrier.

Passengers will have the option to make connections in different cities from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia through Frankfurt’s hub.

With this alliance between Copa Airlines and the Lufthansa Group, passengers will have better options to connect to and from all Latin America through Copa Airlines’ Hub of the Americas in Panama, said Christophe Didier, Commercial Vice President of Copa Airlines.

Similarly, it will now be easier and more comfortable for passengers anywhere in Latin America to directly reach their destination in Europe, he said.

Additionally, Lufthansa’s passengers could use Copa’s services to and from its hub in Panama.

In turn, Copa’s customers can benefit from the services of the Lufthansa Group’s airlines and their hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, and Brussels.

Felipe Bonifatti, General Manager of the Lufthansa Group in Panama, said that the excellent relationship that has united us with Copa Airlines for many years now has now expanded and consolidated through this new and more complete commercial agreement.

This brings countless benefits for everyone, particularly for mutual customers.

At Lufthansa, we are delighted that our flight from Panama to Frankfurt and vice versa also carries a Copa Airlines flight number, with codeshare, he said.

Back in November 2015, Lufthansa signed its first agreement with Copa for the flights to Latin American destinations.

Copa flights in the current winter schedule from Miami, Florida, to Panama, were operated under an additional Lufthansa flight number for passengers to travel from Frankfurt via Miami to Panama City.

Also, additional codeshare flights on Copa from Panama City to the cities of David in Panama, Guayaquil, and Quito in Ecuador, and San Jose in Costa Rica starting with Lufthansa’s inaugural flight from Frankfurt to Panama on March 2, 2016.

Copa Airlines also has agreements and codeshares with other international carriers, allowing its customers to reach over 1,300 airports in 191 countries, with more than 18,400 daily flights.

The airline currently offers service to more than 70 destinations in 31 countries, in North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean with 101 aircraft: 80 Boeing 737 Next-Generation and 21 Embraer-190.



Tourism Observer

INDIA: KLM And Jet Airways To Partner In Flight And Cargo Business

KLM- a part of one of the largest airlines in Europe, is looking to increase its presence in India as it plans to launch a new flight to Mumbai and enhance cargo co-operation within the country.

At present, the airlines, which is a part of the Air France-KLM group, however, operated in a limited capacity and faces intense competition from airlines based in Europe and the Gulf.

We hear KLM plans to resume Amsterdam-Mumbai service after nearly twenty years. Can you share details?

We are seriously considering launching a flight to Mumbai but it is not confirmed yet. There has been an enormous growth of business and relations between India and Netherlands. We have moved from having no connection between Amsterdam-Mumbai to a daily service by Jet Airways.

Moreover, the Airbus A330 aircraft, which had a capacity to accommodate 254-293 passengers, was upgraded to a Boeing 777 aircraft with 346 seats in six months' time.


How are your relations with Jet Airways shaping up? Does the partnership with Jet Airways allow you to bridge the gap with Lufthansa, which is largest European airline group in India?

Our strategy is to have a strong local partner in a country where we operate. Until now, the Air France-KLM group had three destinations in India including Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. With Jet Airways launching flights between Paris and Chennai in winter, we will have a fourth destination and Bengaluru will be connected to both Paris and Amsterdam.

Together with Jet Airways, we will have 61 flights to Amsterdam and Paris during the winter season, thereby stepping up our presence in the market. That also makes us the second largest airline group after Lufthansa, which has 67 weekly flights, and we are catching up to become the first.

Our strategy is to connect the networks and passengers from tier II towns in India can travel to tier II towns in the US via Amsterdam. This is a win-win situation for the Air France-KLM group as well as the Jet Airways.

Is Air France-KLM expanding co-operation with Jet Airways to other areas such as cargo and aircraft maintenance?

We are exploring a partnership with Jet in cargo. We think we have a good opportunity with increasing trade between India and Europe. A Boeing 777 aircraft has 15-17 tonnes of cargo capacity and we are exploring an opportunities involving, cross selling, sharing of aircraft belly space and cargo handling with Jet.

We do have some co-operation on engineering but it is relatively on a small scale and there could be an opportunity to further it.

Last year Jet Airways signed an MOU to enter into a commercial joint venture pact with Air France-KLM. What is the status of the proposed JV.

We have put a lot of efforts to ensure daily operations work well. It is important for our customers to have a seamless connection and a smooth transfer at hubs. The way we conduct financial settlements among airlines is not relevant for customers. For customers, it is relevant that they have good products and a seamless service.

A JV is always a point on the horizon and at some point, it could happen. But if we look at the most successful and enhanced partnership like the one we have with Delta Airlines, it took us years for us to come to that point. Personally, I prefer to make sure everything is good for customers first and then take steps on financial settlements and JVs.

How is your relation with Etihad and other Gulf airlines? Do you see them as partners or adversaries?

We do have co-operation with Etihad. We do have code shares between our hub and Abu Dhabi. We have partnership with Etihad and we are competing with Qatar Airways and Emirates.

Airlines are now looking for partners outside their alliances. Is that going to be a new trend?

If you look at our code-sharing agreements, we have such pacts with Delta, China Southern, China Eastern, Kenya Airways (all Sky Team members). Our partnerships are with the core members of the Sky Team. There are a few exceptions and every airline has a few exceptions. I would not put it as a new trend.

GHANA: Construction Terminal 3 At Kotoka International Airport Underway

Construction work on the new terminal three at Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Ghana set to begin by April this year. The project is scheduled for completion by December 2016.

The new terminal will be situated at the round airside stretching to the Old Fire Service area, to the Hanger area of KIA according to sources, and will have a capacity of 5million passengers a year. The airport terminal construction plan comes after the country registered gradually growth in demand for the international flights, thus putting pressure on airport facilities.

However, one of the construction firm has already been awarded the project tender; it has also been confirmed that the handover of the project is expected is expected to be finalized by end of March.

The planned airport terminal construction project aims at positioning Kokota International Airport as the hub for aviation business in the sub-region, and it will be operating along with three terminals, of which one will handle domestic activities while the remaining two handles international travels.

Furthermore, facilities at the current arrival and departure halls at Terminal 2 are set to undergo upgrading and activities will temporarily be moved to the new terminal while managers begin the upgrade.

BAHAMAS: Caribbean Airlines Expands Trinidad-Nassau Service

Caribbean Airlines has increased its flight service between Trinidad and Nassau, the company announced.

The Port-of-Spain-Nassau flights will operate three times per week on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays as flight BW 414.

The expanded service launched last week.

“The Bahamas welcomes Caribbean Airlines increased service to Nassau,” said Bahamas Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe. “As we move into our high season for tourism, we warmly welcome more visitors from our region to come and see all that the Bahamas has to offer. The three flights weekly will cause for more flexible stays.”

Wilchcombe said “the new route would also allow a fruitful exchange of intra-regional travel and facilitate attendance at various sporting, business and cultural events by business and leisure travellers alike.”

DOMINICA: Seaborne Relaunching Daily Flights To Dominica

Regional airline Seaborne is relaunching service to storm-ravaged Dominica on Wednesday, the company announced.

The daily flights will depart from Dominica each morning at 7 AM, with flights from San Juan to Dominica at 3:25 PM.

Seaborne had canceled all flights to Dominica after damage to the island’s Douglas-Charles International Airport.

“We want to thank Ross University for their massive efforts to move students, faculty and relief workers into and out of the country as well as providing additional ferry service from Guadeloupe to Dominica during this challenging time,” said Seaborne President and CEO Gary Foss. “We also would like to recognize and thank The Dominica Air and Sea Ports Authority, for their round-the-clock work to restore the airport’s infrastructure, allowing the country to be re-linked to the global transportation grid. Their efforts have been nothing less than heroic.”

DOMINICA: LIAT Returning To Dominica

LIAT will resume flights to and from Dominica’s Douglas-Charles Airport beginning Friday, September 18, the airline said in a statement.

LIAT was forced to suspend its services to Dominica on August 27 following the passage of Tropical Storm Erika, which resulted in widespread damage to the island and the closure of the airport.

The airline will operate one flight to Dominica on Friday, and then increase its services to two daily flights beginning Saturday.

“We are extremely happy to be returning to Dominica,” said Chief Executive Officer David Evans. “This would not have been possible without the spirit of community and resilience for which Dominica is well known.”

LI 581 will depart V.C. Bird International Airport in Antigua at 7:10 a.m. daily and arrive at the Douglas-Charles Airport at 7:50 a.m., while the return service, LI 580, will depart Dominica at 8:30 a.m. and arrive in Antigua at 9:10 a.m.

Beginning Saturday, LI 364 will depart Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados at 2:20 p.m. daily, and arrive in Dominica at 3:20 p.m.

LIAT’s service to Guadeloupe and Antigua will continue on Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and its non=stop service to Antigua will continue on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The airline recommends that customers traveling from Dominica arrive at the airport at least three hours prior to the scheduled departure time to account for the increased security and baggage checks at the Douglas-Charles Airport.

COSTA RICA: British Airways Launching Flights to Costa Rica

British Airways is adding flights to Costa Rica.

The carrier announced plans to launch nonstop flights between London Gatwick and San Jose, Costa Rica beginning May 4, 2016.

The flights will initially operate twice a week (Wednesday and Saturday), rising to three times a week in the winter (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday).

British Airways will be operating the flights on Boeing 777 aircraft.

“With everything from its incredible wildlife, rugged rainforests and volcanic peaks, as well as stunning beaches and – of course – world-famous coffee – Costa Rica offers an incredible array of places to visit and experience,” said Colm Lacy, British Airways’ head of commercial Gatwick. “Adding Costa Rica to our wide range of flights from Gatwick boosts our network and gives customers an even greater choice of diverse destinations. We’re very excited to have the opportunity to fly nonstop between London and San Jose and we’re sure this route will prove very popular with those looking for a holiday that’s definitely out of the ordinary.”

In a statement, Costa Rica Tourism Minister Mauricio Ventura said the new service “demonstrates the success of our strategy to attract premium airlines to our country.”

Costa Rica has seen a 12.9 percent increase in tourists from the UK in the last year, averaging two weeks per visit, he said.